President Lula orders a 60-day plan to reduce Brazil’s fossil fuel use, aiming to fund the clean energy transition with oil revenues
BRASÍLIA: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has ordered his cabinet to create a road map to cut Brazil’s dependence on fossil fuels.
The directive, issued by decree on Monday, gives the finance, environment and mining ministries 60 days to draft guidelines for a “gradual reduction” in fossil fuel use.
This fulfils a promise Brazil made as host of last month’s United Nations COP30 climate talks.
At those talks, Lula attempted to broker a global deal on phasing out oil, gas and coal but faced opposition from major producers like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia.
Despite being a major oil producer itself, Brazil committed to presenting its own plan to end fossil fuel use and urged other nations to follow.
The proposed strategy involves using the country’s oil revenues to finance a fund for the transition to clean energy.
Lula, who campaigned as an environmental champion, has faced criticism for supporting state oil company Petrobras’s exploratory drilling near the Amazon River’s mouth.
However, his government’s proposal for a global deal with deadlines to stop burning planet-heating fossil fuels won international praise.
That plan gained backing from a coalition including France, the Marshall Islands and Spain.
Several supporting nations are scheduled to hold a conference on ending fossil fuel use in Colombia in April 2026. – AFP
